Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Want to Feel Like God? Have Kids!

And no, I am not at all talking about being drunk with power. On the contrary, I have never felt so helpless and non-independent (which isn’t the same as dependent) as when I am being Daddy. But, the positive side is that it is much easier for me to imagine what it must have been […]

Paulson Wants $700 Billion and No Stinkin Court Oversight

This is a truly remarkable Bloomberg article outlining just how much power the single man, Henry Paulson, would achieve under the plan that–huh how bout that?–Henry Paulson invented. (HT2 Matt M.) A sample: Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world’s […]

Chicago Prof: "Why Paulson Is Wrong"

Luigi Zingales makes some good points (pdf) about the Paulson Plan. (HT2MR) The best part is the conclusion: The decisions that will be made this weekend matter not just to the prospects of the U.S. economy in the year to come; they will shape the type of capitalism we will live in for the next […]

Ilana Mercer Plugs the Greatest Economics Book Ever

…and she talks good sense on energy issues, too.

Free Market Experts Explain Why Free Market Doesn’t Work

Incidentally, the other thing that bothered me about CNBC today–btw I don’t own a TV, I saw all this while in Penn State–was that the timid, female commentators were honestly asking things like, “But why was this necessary? Why should taxpayers have to pick up the tab?” Then the swaggering tough guys–with really cool silk […]

Dumbest Quote of the Day

So some guy on CNBC was explaining why the government had to buy up all the toxic debt. He said how there were only two major investment banks left, and that “Goldman Sachs is a symbol of market capitalism around the world. If the government had let that fail, it would have sent a strong […]

Bob, 21st Century; 21st Century, Bob

For months now I have known that I “need to” get a PDA. Finally spurred by the recent loss of my cell phone (which ran on vacuum tubes), I broke down and bought a Blackberry before my Penn State trip. Let me just say: OH MY GOSH. I would have been going crazy had I […]

The Government Is Not Promoting Financial Stability

The stock market is opening way way up today because of the announcement of massive government efforts to “support” financial shares. This just demonstrates that the government interventions have not been promoting “stability.” Imagine that during normal economic times, the government started handing out hundreds of billions of dollars to various firms every few days, […]